Re: [boost] [build] bootstrap.sh is still broken

Subject: Re: [boost] [build] bootstrap.sh is still broken
From: Niall Douglas (s_sourceforge_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-10-21 21:37:55

On 21 Oct 2013 at 21:23, Edward Diener wrote:

> I don't see a gcc 4.6.4 on the MingW sourcforge site ( 
> https://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/MinGW/Base/gcc/Version4/ ). 
> There is a 4.7.0-1 and 4.7.2-1 there, which I have used.

Sure, they're trying to get people off 4.6.x, which is indeed old but 
trusty. I keep a tarball of it locally.

> Is there any Boost library tests of which you know that displays this 
> problem ?

I had no reason to look. I only cared about AFIO, and therefore only 
cared about its dependencies ASIO and Thread.

> > I also found a showstopping ICE with my code on a GCC 4.8.x based
> > Mingw which kinda ruled it out for me. I went back to the GCC 4.6.4
> > based Mingw. It's reliable.
> 
> You should really report anything broken in MingW to their bug tracker 
> or mention it in their mailing list. It's possible that the versions on 
> sourceforge have already fixed the problem(s) you have seen. It's also 
> important that users of Boost and MingW understand what may be broken 
> using their particular release.

Mmm. You should look into how Mingw-w64 came about. There is a reason 
they did a clean room reimplementation.

Also, me personally I have zero time for Mingw given MSVC is free and 
Mingw binaries are not interoperable with MSVC ones. However Boost 
peer review wants demonstrated portability, and for that alone I 
delved into Mingw compatibility. Ordinarily I'd never touch it, 
except to debug unhelpful MSVC error messages (and even there I 
prefer clang-win).

> Does the Boost Build gcc toolset on Windows work correctly with 
> Mingw-w64 ? I have not had any problems with it using MingW itself with 
> Boost Build and don't want to commit to testing against it unless Boost 
> Build works with it.

It worked fine for me. Simply make sure you bootstrap and run b2.exe 
from inside a Mingw-w64 command box, or else fiddle with PATH to 
insert Mingw-w64's bin directories for your environment. Otherwise 
it'll pick up normal Mingw.

Niall

-- 
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Work Portfolio: http://careers.stackoverflow.com/nialldouglas/